Blog

The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)

More of the neighbourhood

More adventures with the Holga.

There is a block of public apartments near where I live that runs about 8 or 9 stories high. Access to the stairs leading to the top floor is open so I took a visit on a mid Sunday afternoon conveniently missing the sign (I discovered on another day) that said no trespassing or the police will be called. Thank god I didn’t get caught.)

Having now been up their and shot a role or two I’m keen to access a place with the same kind of view with the same hight and a lot less risk.

Tokyo is a lot more interesting when you can see beyond your own nose.

Shot using expired Chinese 100ASA film which helps produce the really spotting images.

Koga san

This was shot on an outing with Thomas, Jon and Koga san when we were visiting Aoki Gahara (suicide forest) near mt. Fuji. A great afternoon after the rain had stopped for thirty minutes and given us just enough time to take a few pictures on lake Motosu (the the right of the picture that you can't see) which resulted in some of my best during the trip. This is just before Koga san became a dad. Oh, this was shot with the Rolleiflex f/2.8 d.

Path up Nokogiri

Shot this last winter using the Holga at midday. Cold as hell and not much in the way of nice foliage. You have to get a bit further up the mountain to encounter snow. I think by that time my fingers didn't work and I couldn't release the shutter. Love the way the Holga screws with the focus position though. I always tend to forget how it screws with the image. Built in atmosphere :-)

The buildings

buildings.jpg

New home for an old photo.I was visiting Sydney one year and wandering around the city on my own. It looked like rain but I risked taking the camera out. A drop of water hit me and i looked up and saw this almost symmetrical view of these two buildings. By some miracle I got the exposure right.

A day at the beach

During the holiday period (to be politically correct for Americans, or, as most Australians like to call it, Christmas)  I returned to Australia with plans to do a fair bit of shooting both inland and on the coast. My plans were dogged with sicknesses and bad weather which resulted in only a handful of pictures I managed to make while I was there. I was fortunate that the day was overcast and there was enough cloud in the sky to make the shots interesting. I've always liked dogs on the beach so while I was on the 35km strip I searched out the lone dog who became the feature of this three image set.

Shot on TMax 100 and developed in Tmax developer but scanned with the brightness and contrast way down so I was able to screw with the balance afterward.

A view near Fuji

As part of the trip to Aokigahara Jukai we also took a little drive around Mt. Fuji and through the road that leads right through the forest. To our surprise we came to a lookout area along the way.This is the result. Inford Pan F+ 50 shot using the Rolleiflex and an ND 8 filter and developed in Rodinal at 20c. The neg's turned out a lot more grainy than I expected but I guess that's what Rodinal will do.

Aokigahara Jukai

So I finally have a few thing's to show from the Aokigahara Jukai trip.Only took the Rolleiflex this time. Well, I took the 5d also but it was the light meter for day 2 and not a good one at that. It seems that my trusty Sekonic did the job just great. These B+W shots are proof. After seeing the results I'm keen to go back again. At the start of the trip it was pouring rain and Jon and I had to walk 20 mins to get to the station at about 6:50am. We hadn't event started and we were soaked. Still, the weather was actually a blessing and I'm really pleased Thomas, with his boundless enthusiasm got us all shooting in the rain in the forest. For me it made for better shots than the sunny day after. Next will be to see what everyone has printed. Thanks guy's. It was a lot of fun.

All shot on TMax 100 and developed using Tmax dev 1:4

Long Grass

The writing. Always the writing. I can't seem to find the time to write the words. The longer I stay in Japan the less of a words person I become I think. This is a shot from my Aokigahara Jukai (青木ヶ原) trip I made with Thomas, Koga san and Jon.

It was an excellent trip and I think I managed to get a few ok shots out of it. I'm kind of wondering why it took such a long time for us to actually go on a trip. We've gotta do this more.

I'll likely try to post a few new shots of the trip before I depart Japan for Australia for part of the summer.

This specific shot was taken near the forest using Jon's Velvia 50 and the Rolleiflex f/2.8 d with a Rollinar 1 closeup lens. The colour has been dialed back as the original was (to use Jon's term) too "in-your-face".

The Frame builder

I've been working on a little project that has taken a bit of my time.It's not done yet. There is still a way to go but I thought I would share a few frames thus far. I'm primarily shooting it on Kodak Tmax 400 @1600 using the Hasselblad and accenting the series with a little colour (Kodak Portra 400).

The subject of my project is a bicycle frame builder from Kyoto that now lives in Tokyo and has a shop not far away from where I live. I haven't come across anyone building frames in Tokyo as yet and have since discovered it's a bit of a rarity.

Stephan

I hope he doesn't mind me uploading this.The atmosphere in the shot, the focus, the light are the elements that I really like in this shot. I knew bringing the Rolleiflex back would pay off. Stephan gets all the credit for putting up with me constantly taking his picture. Shot on TMax 400 @1600 and developed in TMax developer.

Misty mountains

A few months ago I took a day off and went for a training ride and took the Holga. I've lugged the Hasselblad around the mountains before but sometimes you need to make a compromise.The whole area I ride (see strava link above) has the potential to look like this. And if you can time your ride and hit the last mountain late afternoon the sunsets can be impressive. Now summer is here I'll have to wait for winter to set in before we see more moody, misty skys again.

Shot on Portra 400 and developed with a load of crap all over the neg (hmm).